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I know every single one of you have been waiting for
this announcement and that your lives revolve
around this news: My D200 has arrived. I’ve only had
it a couple of days so I really don’t know all its
capabilities. I do know that its auto-focus system
drives my old 80-200 much better than my D100
does. This picture is the first one taken with the
D200. It has some problems, mostly due to me just
attaching a lens and firing away without thinking too
much or setting it in the proper AF mode. I guess
that means that one does not even
need to think to use this camera. I'll be a natural.
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And since I have my D200 in hand, that means I
have a D100 that will go unused. So it’s for sale if
anybody’s interested. It comes with the MBD-100
vertical grip, the Really Right Stuff L-Bracket, 2
batteries, Thom Hogan’s guide to the D100, and all
the usual stuff that the camera came with.
I also still have my F100 for sale along with the vertical grip, and a quick release plate for the body. I’ll be putting this stuff on eBay within the next few days so if you’re interested, drop me a line soon. |
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I've posted a partial 2007 workshop schedule on my
web page. Next year I'll be doing some workshops
for "The Nature Workshops", a company that's been
around for years and years. I'll be leading workshops
for them to Olympic National Park, Mt. Rainier, The
Palouse,and the Oregon Coast.
I've also posted a few other workshops that I'll be doing with my friend Don Mammoser. We've yet to figure out all the details but we'll be getting to that soon. |
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The other day I picked up a copy of National
Geographic’s Guide to Digital Photography ($9.95)
and thought I’d let you know what I thought of it.
Overall, it’s an ok starter guide. It’s definitely aimed
at those who are thinking of getting a digital camera
and those who already use a small, point and shoot,
digital camera. Due to the magazine format of this
guide it can’t get too in depth, however it seems a
little too light on photographic basics, and some
basic
terms like “stop” are not defined. There is a good
overview of histograms and an adequate explanation
of how meters work. Much of the guide seemed to
me to be various professional photographers singing
the praises of digital. I think some of that could have
been left out in favor of more photo tips.
Much of the guide covers what you can do with the picture after it’s taken, whether that means “fixing” pictures in Photoshop Elements or sharing them on websites, slideshows, etc. All the pictures have captions noting camera used, shutter speed, and aperture. What’s missing is, to me, the most important information of all: the lens in use. Also, many of the pictures shown were taken with high end digital SLR cameras and, based on what I can see in some of the pictures, expensive telephoto or macro lenses. In other words, pictures impossible to get for 99% of the readers of this guide. Overall though, for someone looking to get into digital photography, this guide is a good place to start. You can find it in bookstores or newstands everywhere. |
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Last month I listed this book as one of my favorite
Photoshop books, and if you’ve been using Photoshop
and are getting comfortable with it, I think you
should give this book a try. This is not a beginner’s
book. If you have some Photoshop experience under
your belt and you’re comfortable with using layers,
curves, changing color spaces, you’ll be able to
follow most of this book. It does get a little
advanced at times but, as I like to say, if you enjoy
factoring quadratic trinomials you’ll enjoy this book.
You’ll find powerful techniques for correcting color in
specific areas of an image, sharpening, and noise
reduction. You’ll start thinking of image optimization
in new ways and you may even begin photographing
with correcting in LAB in mind.
Even if you don’t enjoy math as much as I do, you’ll still get a lot out of this book. It’s well written, occasionally humorous, and builds on concepts, which I believe is the best way to learn anything. |
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That's all for now. I need to get out and play with
my new camera. Enjoy the last few days of spring
and happy summer solstice!
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